


Troubled Night

by sisaat



Series: Sleepless Nights [3]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Gen, Insomnia, Literal Sleeping Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 15:50:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11165097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sisaat/pseuds/sisaat
Summary: Eliot can't sleep. Some people think they can help.





	Troubled Night

**Author's Note:**

> This didn't really turn out the way I wanted, but if I keep waiting for it to magically fix itself I'll never post it, so here you go.  
> Set early in season five.

It hadn't been a good week. Eliot couldn't even point out a specific reason why. But sleep had been even harder to find and less restful than usual and it was starting to show. He doubted it was just a happenstance that Sophie thought he absolutely _must_  try this new chamomile tea she had bought and so he had found himself leaving the brewpub with a box of the stuff. It was good tea, you could always count on Sophie for that, and maybe he had even fallen asleep more easily after a nice, quiet time reading something light and drinking tea, but it didn't keep nightmares away.

Tossing and turning wasn't going to help him fall back asleep, though, so he forced himself to stay still and steady his breathing. To bring himself back into the here and now. He started listing sounds he could hear. Cars, mostly distant. Cats fighting on the metallic roof of a shed and yowling at each other. Someone breaking into his apartment. Parker, he recognized her pattern as she methodically picked the locks. He heard the door open, and he couldn't hear Parker walking, not from here, but he could hear Hardison. Especially when he stubbed his toe on something in the dark. 

He didn't get up to see what they wanted. Not as long as they didn't start messing with his kitchen. He wouldn't put it past them to come here in the middle of the night because Parker knew he had that "fancy" hot chocolate that she loved. She had broken into his place at odd hours to demand waffles before, she just never brought Hardison along for that. But they were together now, so maybe that was her idea of a date.

He didn't open his eyes when they came into his room, not until Parker went around to his side of the bed and gave his shoulder a shove. She was standing there in sleeping clothes, holding her taser and making motions with her free hands to tell him to roll away from the window. He growled at her. She hissed. He gave up and just did what she wanted. If she wanted to stand guard, he might as well let her. She got in bed, pressed her back against his and he could hear her put her taser down on the table by the bed. 

Hardison got in on the other side and Eliot found himself wrapped into a protective embrace, as if Hardison could actually protect him from anything but a computer virus. He didn't mention that. They were trying and he could appreciate that. He closed his eyes again. The touch was grounding, if nothing else, and he could feel the steady rise and fall of Hardison's chest. He matched his breathing until it deepened with sleep.

* * *

Eliot woke up first. He wouldn't call the night of anxious dreams "peaceful", but it was the better sleep than he had in a while. It was early, but the sun was rising. He didn't move. Eliot wasn't one to stay in bed when he was awake, but he couldn't get up without waking up everyone else and this was... restful. Like if he kept his eyes closed, he could just drift in an half-awake state where he didn't dream and the world was on hold.

Parker was the next to wake up. She didn't poke him in the ribs and ask for breakfast like she normally did. They just laid there in companionable silence with Hardison's arm thrown over both of them. It was almost an hour before the hacker stirred and broke the silence.

"Hmm... you two awake already?"

"Already?" Eliot repeated, but he couldn't quite summon a sarcastic tone and his words were mumbled into Hardison's shoulder.

"Morning," Parker said.

And it was time to get out of bed. He pushed Hardison's arm away, gently at first and then less so when he was slowed to comply, and sat up. Hardison grabbed his arm before he could figure out how best to climb out when neither of the two were getting up.

"Hey, you slept well?"

"Yeah," he answered, because it might not fit Hardison's definition of "well", but it was true enough and he didn't want them to think they hadn't helped. "Yeah, I did."

**Author's Note:**

> One day I will write the "Eliot has a complicated relationship with touch" fic I want to write, but for now you're getting cuddles to finish this series.


End file.
